


New York minute

by Matthew1972



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-17
Updated: 2017-09-17
Packaged: 2018-12-30 21:40:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12117780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Matthew1972/pseuds/Matthew1972
Summary: In a New York minute everything can change, or so in a winter cold city Merlin finds out when a certain someone stands unexpected before him like no time has passed at all.





	New York minute

That winter New York city froze to a staggering halt. Flakes of snow fell heavy onto the thick blanket of winter cold that had cast the city around Merlin in a world of white. Every breath he blew out into the air came in a puff of hot air meeting frosty winds which turned his icy fingers even colder. Sounds of heavy traffic and people shouting for taxis had ceased to silence. Skyscrapers cast long shadows onto an already grey white world of winter light. Everything fitted his mood gone somber with time.

The snow under his boots crunched unnoticed as Merlin plodded on. He knew the city blocks by heart, counting down the numbers of the avenues somewhere unregistered in his mind. The wind caught onto his longer grown locks, but Merlin did not pay notice to how he looked, not anymore. It did not matter that his skin paled under the winter freeze or that tiny specks of snow froze to ice in his hair. He would live on… he always did… and so half blind he turned the corner…

… Until on fifth avenue at last Merlin too wavered. His eyes blinked into the unexpected sight of the sun. As if to taunt him further the golden beams of light reflected in the snow around him. Each crystal ignited into a strange warm emotion of memory. Was his mind playing tricks on him now?

In the next breath Merlin froze up in the middle of the street. For out of the shadows a figure came walking towards him. Confident in stance and manner they closed the distance between them. With each step towards Merlin the second pair of boots chased the silence and cold of his lonely immortal life away. The sun rose further with each echo too, or was that his heart wishing too hard for what his mind knew could not be? Merlin held out his hand on instinct, eager to hold again and yet afraid to meet with emptiness.

" _Mer_ lin!"

His first given name not spoken in centuries bounced off snow covered streets and never-ending high walls. The voice of promise wrapped around him, worming its way passed logic and mind to warm his heart to fulfill a dragon's promise. His voice unfroze in slow recognition until it ripped free from his throat in the name of the man his soul had never forgotten about… his other half.

"Arthur!" Their names wrapped together in tune with their bodies. Strong arms held him tight, and Merlin savored the feeling of having Arthur so close to him… a promise of home sealed in a kiss that shattered the last of cold from his soul. There was so much to say, too much perhaps, but all Merlin could wrap his mind around was that at last he felt whole again. "You're here."

"Where else would I be?"

"Nowhere, because you are lost without me."

Under the touch of two warm hands holding his face Merlin could not look away from the intensity of his King… no, his lover returned to the world. "I was, but not anymore."

"Me too."

"Take me home, Merlin."

"The world has changed… I…"

"I know. Your bed will do fine… for now."

Time moved forwards again in the minute they walked off. Hands held onto each other in a need to be sure that the other would not be ripped away again. Merlin steered Arthur around the next corner like a man with his newfound reason to live on. Echoes of their shared footfalls fell into tune with the sun rising higher to warm the cold left behind.

Snow covered sideways began to melt into streams of ice water flowing away through the gutters. Voices of the first citizens tempted to be brave filled the streets the couple had just passed through… but they paid no notice to anyone else but the man belonging to the hand in theirs. Unseen by the city of anonymous faces Merlin and Arthur walked off into the brave future destiny owed them.


End file.
